Facebook Shuts Door on 'Dislike' Button, Advertisers Breathe Sigh Of Relief
In his “Q&A with Mark,” Zuckerberg noted that people sometimes read posts that are sad or cover sensitive topics and would like to acknowledge them with something other than a “like” button. He says Facebook is mulling ways to help users with that, but didn’t get specific. In any event, Zuckerberg is clearly focused on helping people express positive opinions.
Some advertisers fear a “dislike” button; the popular opinion is that a large numbers of dislikes could affect sales. That’s an understandable worry, considering the number of “likes” that popular posts often rack up. Now imagine the impact of the same number of dislikes appearing on posts related to products or businesses. Users have also expressed concern that a “dislike” button could be used as a tool for bullying among teenagers.
Maybe reducing all conversations to buttons and emoticons isn’t necessary. As Zuckerberg pointed out, there’s already a good tool for expressing your opinion in Facebook: the comment feature.
